Research Catalog

Title

Silence was a weapon : the Vietnam war in the villages : a personal perspective / Stuart A. Herrington.

Author

Herrington, Stuart A., 1941-

Publication

Novato, CA : Presidio Press, ©1982.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvii, 222 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

As an American advisor to Vietnam from February 1971 to August 1972, the author's job was to root out the insurgency in the villages and hamlets. Operation Phoenix (the code name for the central organization formed to gather information on the Vietcong) had already found out how difficult this was. Local officials were reluctant to cooperate for fear of retaliation and distrust of foreigners. The villagers were silent. Without help from the people, uncovering the shadow government that supported the Communists was impossible. To interrogate a captured Vietcong by torture -- the method of the local authorities -- was unproductive. Herrington's method was different. The process of turning a Communist insurgent into an informer, to get him to "rally" to the government of South Korea, was delicate and dangerous. Each defector is a character unto himself, well delineated, well understood. The elements of a spy story surround them, but it is all tragically true -- ambush, assassination, betrayal. -- From publisher's description.

Subject

• Herrington, Stuart A., 1941-
• Vietcong
• 1961 - 1975
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975 > Underground movements
• Counterinsurgency > Vietnam
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975 > Personal narratives, American
• Counterinsurgency
• War > Underground movements
• Vietnamkrieg
• Dorf
• Erlebnisbericht
• Autobiografie
• Counterinsurgency > Vietnam
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975 > Personal narratives, American
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975 > Underground movements
• Vietnam

Genre/Form

• Autobiography
• autobiographies (literary works)
• Autobiographies
• Personal narratives – American
• Autobiographies.

Note

• Includes index.

Contents

Introduction: a word on perspective -- "A model revolutionary village" -- Comrade Hai Chua -- Nguyen van Phich -- Revolutionary justice -- Senior Captain Hai Tet -- "To be a real human being, you must be a Communist" -- The human data bank -- Still more revolutionary justice -- War comes to Hau Nghia -- "Born in the North to die in the South" -- "The best in the Republic of Vietnam" -- "NVA in the marketplace!" -- A presidential envoy -- "Chao, Dai Uy" -- "Nam was a bummer".

ISBN

• 0891411402
• 9780891411406

LCCN

81017901

OCLC

• ocm07923168
• 7923168
• SCSB-33747

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library